Fibre broadband speed - your opinions please

I got Plusnet fibre broadband about a month ago. When I placed the order, Plusnet sent me an email telling me my estimated speed was 80Mbps. I am consistently getting 30Mbps. I get this via ethernet cable and also if I put my wireless laptop next to the router (which is downstairs where the BT line comes into the house). Upstairs, the speed varies from 10Mbps to 20Mbps.

I am in south London and the green cabinet on my street is less than 50 yards from my house, so I don't understand why the actual speed is so far out of line with the estimate.

The other thing that puzzles me is that the engineer Plusnet sent has left us with two routers, one sitting on top of the other and the two connected by a cable. One of the routers looks just like the ordinary broadband router I used to have before I upgraded to fibre. I assume that's how it works, but it seems odd.

Your opinions much appreciated before I raise the issue with Plusnet.

You don't have two routers. One is a modem supplied by BT and the other is the router supplied by Plusnet.

In reply to a post by greenwich:

I got Plusnet fibre broadband about a month ago. When I placed the order, Plusnet sent me an email telling me my estimated speed was 80Mbps. I am consistently getting 30Mbps. I get this via ethernet cable and also if I put my wireless laptop next to the router (which is downstairs where the BT line comes into the house). Upstairs, the speed varies from 10Mbps to 20Mbps.

What are you using to determine the speed? Can you do a BT Wholesale test, click the Further Diagnostics button and report back what it gives as your IP profile?

In reply to a post by greenwich:

The other thing that puzzles me is that the engineer Plusnet sent has left us with two routers, one sitting on top of the other and the two connected by a cable. One of the routers looks just like the ordinary broadband router I used to have before I upgraded to fibre. I assume that's how it works, but it seems odd.

As posted, you should have a router and a modem. But I would have expected the router to be sent out in advance by Plusnet, not brought by the engineer, unless Plusnet is now using fully managed installs.

Names and model numbers for the two devices, suspect it is as people have said.

Normally if the upload is able to reach 20 Mbps, then you'd expect the download to get close to the 80 as well. Maybe an IP Profile setting needs tweaking at the PlusNet end - wild guess time.

Upstairs, not upload . As in postcodecard.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Maybe an IP Profile setting needs tweaking at the PlusNet end - wild guess time.

Quite possible but it would be useful to have the IP profile first.

greenwich
First thing to do is NOT to have them on top of each other, they both need to have ventilation or Heat will affect the speed. Stick them side by side.

I assume the laptop is fairly new, under 3 years old, or it could be affecting the speed as well.

Use the speed tester on here to tell us the upload and download speed, you should be able to post a link to the test so that others can see what you are getting.

A BT speed test result is also useful.

Thank you everyone for your replies. Here are my updates:

I did a test on the BT wholesale site. It gave me 31.64 download, 8.63 upload, ping latency 40.13. This is with laptop connected by Ethernet to the router with everything else turned off. I clicked on further diagnostics, entered my phone number and clicked for the diagnostics but it says: "Your speed test has completed and the results are shown above, however during the test an error occurred while trying to retrieve additional details regarding your service. As a result we are unable to determine if the speed you received during the test is acceptable for your service." So I can't give you my IP profile.

I did a speed test here (which is what I was doing before). This is the latest result, again downstairs but using wireless and with my laptop right next to the router:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

The modem was brought by the BT engineer and the router came in the post from Plusnet. The router model is TG582n Technicolour. Not sure what the modem model is but the back of it says B-FOCuS Type 1B. I have moved the router up to the window sill, a few feet above the modem, which is on a little table in the hallway. This has meant that the speeds upstairs have improved from 10Mbps to the 13-24Mbps range, which I appreciate. My laptop is about 3 years old (Win7, 4Mb RAM).

Would appreciate your further thoughts, particularly about why I can't get an IP profile.

Edited by deleted (Wed 27-Nov-13 08:27:39)

What does it give as your current line speed in the Plusnet member centre? That might give some clue. As for the IP profile, I don't know why it doesn't work, keep trying. BTW there is really little point in posting wireless speed test results, only a wired test really counts, there are too many unknowns with wireless.

In reply to a post by kasg:

What does it give as your current line speed in the Plusnet member centre? That might give some clue.

I just checked and it says:

Estimated line speed:
80Mb (Download speed could vary depending on line conditions. Estimates are the maximum speeds that your phone line can support. These speeds are dependent on the package you choose.) - Checked on 2013-10-16 19:53:03
Current line speed:
33.8 Mb

This seems to confirm the speeds I have been measuring.

In reply to a post by kasg:

As for the IP profile, I don't know why it doesn't work, keep trying. BTW there is really little point in posting wireless speed test results, only a wired test really counts, there are too many unknowns with wireless.

I can attach new test results when I get home tonight, using Ethernet. But the test I linked to was done with the laptop right next to the router and it gave about the same reading as the BT wholesale speed test I mentioned in the same post, which was done with an Ethernet cable and with wireless disabled on the laptop.